Queen's first two albums showed flashes of brilliance, but it was their third that fully announced them in all their hard-rocking, high-camp, vaudevillian glory. It launches with this rip-roaring ditty in which, over drummer Roger Taylor's pounding beat, Freddie Mercury (pictured right) voices guy and girl parts of a burgeoning romance, before guitarist Brian May whips up an astonishing wall of sound with his delay-pedal.

2: Killer Queen 1974, Sheer Heart Attack

Mercury's ode to a Moët-quaffing courtesan was the first of more than 20 Queen singles to chart in both the UK and US. On Sheer Heart Attack, it follows the May-penned thrill-ride of Brighton Rock, calming the mood while still revelling in the band's distinctively lush harmonies, impossibly crisp musicianship and uniquely preposterous lyrics.

The band's finest heads-down rocker and, three decades on, still a rush of pure adrenaline. May's riffing is so solid you could rest your pint on it, Mercury's delivery a masterclass in leering brio.

4: Death on Two Legs 1975, A Night at the Opera

"IN-sane! Should be put IN-side! You're a sewer-rat decaying in a cess-pool of pride..." Mercury never revealed who inspired the opener to Queen's next, even grander album, but the message was clear. His rare outburst of vituperation found a splendid home on this track, which begins with a beautiful string of distant, rippling piano chords and just keeps getting better.

5: I'm in Love With My Car 1975, A Night at the Opera

Queen's second magnum opus yielded endless further treasures, including Bohemian Rhapsody and this rare Roger Taylor composition, a chunky wedge of auto-eroticism that was also Rhapsody's B-side. ``Told my girlfriend I got to forget her/ Rather buy me a new carburettor'' screams the gravel-voiced drummer, tonsils ablaze and tongue firmly in cheek. Great, dumb fun.

6: Seaside Rendezvous 1975, A Night at the Opera

The most unfairly neglected of all the Freddie-at-the-ivories gems, this sees the exuberant frontman in full flapper mode. Complete with whistles, kazoos and lovely piano-playing from Mercury, it's a tale of omnibuses, casinos and moonlit trysts that skips along like a love-struck dandy on a promenade.

7: We Will Rock You 1977, News of the World

This musical atom bomb by Brian May is quite unlike any other track ever recorded, by anyone. The stomping, the clapping and the surging, anthemic chorus whisk you straight to some unseen stadium, and the crunching arrival of the guitar remains one of the most exciting moments in rock.

8: Don't Stop Me Now 1978, Jazz

Mercury's joyous three-and-a-half-minute hymn to hedonism could be read as his personal mission statement. Letting rip at the piano, he clearly is having the time of his life, delivering such lines as ``200 degrees - that's why they call me Mr Fahrenheit'' with such infectious passion that they somehow make perfect sense. Utterly irresistible.

9: I Want to Break Free 1984, THE WORKS

Next to the embarrassment of acoustic riches that was Queen's '70s output, their '80s studio work generally seemed an unfortunate spiral of hammy production and cheesy synths. Even so, anyone aged 25 to 50 who won't admit to knowing every word of bassist John Deacon's superbly OTT bid for romantic liberty is probably lying.

10: Tie Your Mother Down 1986, Live Magic

Fourteen years after Aids claimed Mercury's life, Queen's tally of 150 million album sales continues to rise - and, with Free's Paul Rodgers on vocals, the band are once again packing venues. Rodgers is a formidable frontman, but this barnstorming live favourite (originally on 1976's A Day at the Races, and recorded here following the band's magnificent, career-reviving set at Live Aid) is a reminder that no one could ever fill Freddie's shoes.